An interesting article in the Washington Jewish Week looks into the rising Jewish identity of five different fraternities and sororities. The article, “Jewish Fraternities, Sororities Return to Roots: But the Sailing is Not Always Smooth” notes that a number of historically Jewish Greek organizations have been reverting to their roots:

While remaining open to non-Jewish members, in accordance with federal law and their own nondiscrimination clauses, these Greek organizations are actively recruiting Jewish students, reintroducing rituals such as Shabbat meals, and promoting Israel’s cause on campus with a vigor not seen in years.

“We’re a Jewish sorority, and staying true to who we are keeps us strong,” says Bonnie Wunsch, executive director of Alpha Epsilon Phi, founded in 1909 as the nation’s first Jewish sorority.

After years of “Jewish was in, Jewish was out,” AEPhi has focused strongly on its Jewish identity for about a decade, Wunsch says. And it’s growing fast as a result ‹ three new chapters and two colonies, the precursor to a chapter, since April.

Has anyone noticed this playing out on your campus? Is rush getting harder as there are multiple options (AEPi, ZBT, and SAM) for students looking for a Jewish fraternal experience?

The vacation ran long, but the AEPi blog is back in action. There is a new post up above, and more coming soon.

For now, please let me know anything that you would want to read about. And if you want to help out or write something for this blog, please leave a comment or e-mail me at andyratto@gmail.com

This blog will be on break over summer vacation, and resume in late August or early September. Until then, I will be writing some content and not posting it (so there will be much more to post once vacation is over) and I will also be looking for other people to serve as writers next year. Leave a comment if you would like to be involved.

The AEPi blog will be featuring a number of interviews with active brothers, alumni, staff, and other people with something interesting to contribute. I am proud to include the first interview below, an e-mail discussion with a Re-Founding Father of the Chi Alpha Chapter (UC Berkeley). The interviews will be longer than most of the posts here, so I am including the first questions below, with the rest behind a link. (I guarantee it’s worth your time, as there are comments below the fold about a certain Supreme Governor drinking throw-up.) Finally, If you know of someone who the AEPi Blog can interview, please drop us a line, as we are always looking for great new people to talk to.

I went to Cal from 1984-1988, I started off as a computer science major, but the math class requirements proved too much. So I transitioned to a Music degree while still taking computer classes that interested me. Between studying, AEPi and trying to get laid, I had a full schedule.

One day during my Senior year I noticed that someone was speaking about advertising careers on campus. I had wanted to do film composition and heard that the best way into the industry was to start out doing advertising jingles. So I attended the presentation, was quite impressed with the company (Chiat/Day) that was featured, and decided to try and just send a letter to ask about an internship for the summer. I got the internship and then worked that summer in the video room for Chiat/Day in San Francisco. The company was impressed enough with me to offer me a job at the end of the internship, so I worked there part-time while finishing school and then became a full-time employee the day after I graduated.

After around 3 years at the agency, I decided that I wanted to do what I was doing for the company for other companies, not wanting to limit myself to a single place. So I left the ad agency and started computer consulting. That was 15 years ago. I still am doing it, with my brother Alex (Cal, AEPi, ‘90) as my business partner and around 20 other people.

1. Why did you decide to become a re-founding father for the Chi Alpha chapter?
Rob Ackermann was a transfer from San Diego State and had been in AEPi there, he met a number of other students around the time that AEPi was being reformed. After one initial discussion about AEPi, Rob came into my dorm room, I was lying on my bed, he lifted the entire mattress up against the wall, pinning me between the mattress and the wall. He said (in the voice of a drill sergeant), “WHAT WOULD YOU RATHER BE OR DIE?” - I didn’t know what he was talking about, but finally realized that “AEPi” was the answer. And so I committed to joining. True story.
(more…)

While goolging for the latest AEPi news I came across a bunch of financial news and I couldn’t figure out why those results were showing up. It turns out that AEP Incorcorpated has the stock symbol (AEPI). And now AEPi (the stock) has hit a new fifty two week high. Congratulations guys! Here is the company’s website.

For Andy Borans’ next birthday, someone should get him some shares…

The Unoffficial AEPi Blog is seeking writers to help expand our content and bring more news and information to brothers and alumni throughout the country (and Canada!).

As far as qualification, if you can use Word and send e-mail then you can blog. It’s really that easy. Blogging makes you a better writer, more knowledgeable, helps you meet new people and make new friends, looks great on your resume, and it’s an excellent way to help out the fraternity.

If you are even remotely interested in writing for the AEPi Blog, please leave a comment with an e-mail address that you can be reached at or e-mail us at aepiblog@gmail.com.

And if there is anyone who isn’t looking for a long term commitment, we are always looking for people to write a guest post about anything that relates to AEPi. And if anyone has cool photos or videos, please drop us a line.

Bad news from the Dartmouth Newspaper:

The Interfraternity Council voted Tuesday night against allowing national Jewish fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi to receive official College recognition. The vote marked the first time the Council has considered expansion since the Board of Trustees lifted its moratorium on new Greek organizations last June.

A small group of students interested in AEPi have been meeting weekly since late fall and now seek to be officially recognized by the College. Although IFC presidents seem reluctant to expand, members of the AEPi interest group believe there is a need for their fraternity within the Dartmouth social scene.

AEPi President Patrick Karas offered some comments in the article about why he thought the vote went the way it did:

Karas said he fears that the current fraternities of the IFC view a new fraternity as competition, but he stressed that “there are plenty of eligible undergraduates” interested in AEPi who are currently unaffiliated, and thus AEPi would not be competing with current fraternities for new members.

Cunningham believes that the vote against AEPi is not related to the fraternity’s official affiliation with Judaism. Rather, Cunningham believes that IFC presidents do not see a need for expansion at this time.

Karas said that some fraternity presidents expressed concern that a Jewish fraternity would segregate the Jewish community, but he believes that this will not happen due to the social, rather than religious, nature of the organization. Despite AEPi’s initial setback, the club plans to try once again for the IFC’s approval.

The Dartmouth fired back two days later with an editorial criticizing the decision, “Having the Players Call the Game”

Karas said in the article that they will move forward with their plans, and that they hope to eventually gain university recognition. Brothers everywhere can help out their efforts be using the online rushee referral form from the International AEPi website to pass along information about any Jewish friends or relatives at Dartmouth.

For those of you who have been living under a rock unfamiliar with Wikipedia, it’s an online Encyclopedia that can be edited by anyone, and all the content has been added by individual users. [You can read more on the About page at Wikipedia.]

Alpha Epsilon Pi has its own page at Wikipedia. Right now, the entry has information on AEPi’s Mission Statement, History, Notable Alumni, List of Chapters, and External links. Most of these entries are very brief and could use some editing to bulk them up and provide more information.

For an example of a substantial fraternity entry in Wikipedia, check out the Delta Kappa Epsilon entry. For DKE there is a lengthy history of the fraternity, instead of the three paragraphs that the AEPi entry has. Our entry could also use some photos of other important fraternity items, such as the pledge pin. The notable alumni list could also be expanded, and organized by profession, similar to this.

Also, under the list of Chapters only a few link to the website of that chapter, and that is something that anyone can easily change so that the list on Wikipedia will always have the current links for all of the chapter websites. I’ll link to the site again in the future if it is improved upon.

The Chi Alpha Chapter at UC Berkeley was recently vandalized with anti-Semitic grafiti. At the right, is a photos of the clean-up of the deck, which was then repainted. More photos of the vandalism and the clean-up can be seen here. The Daily Cal, the school newspaper, had an article about the incident, that began:

A Jewish fraternity on campus was the target of ethnically based vandalism when a racial epithet was painted on the house’s deck Sunday night, fraternity officials said.

The term “kike,” a racial slur against Jewish people, was painted in white on the deck of Alpha Epsilon Pi and was discovered by one of the fraternity’s members Monday morning, according to fraternity officials.

The last major anti-Semitic incident in Berkeley was in 2002 when a cinder block was thrown through a window at the campus Hillel.

The President of the Jewish Student Union responded to the incident by writing a letter to the Daily Cal, which read in part,

This defacement transcends mere petty crime; it indicates an intolerance that is supremely disappointing to see on this campus.

The fraternity house and the Hillel building are the two most Jewish-related buildings near campus. To have one of them be the target of such an act really points not only to a crime against the brothers of the fraternity but also against the larger Jewish community.

The students here at Berkeley pride themselves on their diversity. Differences are celebrated here.

It is therefore all the more terrible and frightening to know that someone, perhaps someone from within our community, has so failed to understand what makes this campus great.

Berkeley teaches us to embrace those we might not otherwise have come into contact with. Someone missed this lesson.

Many brothers in AEPi mention that the bond they feel with their fraternity brothers, can be almost as strong as the bond they have with their real family.

A recent article from the BBC News department, “‘Four mothers’ for Europe’s Jews” offers some evidence that many members of AEPi might be more closely related than they realized.

The study of Ashkenzi Jews revealed that “Almost half of Europe’s Jews are descended from just four women who lived 1,000 years ago.”

For the many Ashkenazi AEPi brothers across the country, the odds are good that some of us share these for women in common from our past. From the article:

The four women are thought to have lived in the Middle East about 1,000 years ago but they may not have lived anywhere near each other, according to the study published in the American Journal of Human Genetics. However, they bequeathed genetic signatures to their descendents, which do not appear in non-Jews and are rare in Jews not of Ashkenazi origin.